Movie review - "Event Horizon" (1997) **1/2

 It's weird I'd never seen this. Decent budget, effects and cast, amiable Alien knock off with chunks of science and some shocks. (The monster is the ship, etc etc). None of it is terribly involving. Actors like Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill and Joely Richardson class up the joint despite all the third act gore. Don't quite get why it has a cult reputation

Movie review - "Head" (1968) ***

 The Monkees trashed their career with this nutty movie. It's imaginative, far out, clever, fun. It spends a lot of time spoofing old movies - Arabian nights, Westerns, war films - throws in some anti-Vietnam stuff. I think even if it hadn't made a point of toying with the Monkee image it wouldn't have made money - too plot less (even Hard Day's Night had more unity). Also a downer ending with the Monkees trying to escape and being recaptured. Maybe if it had some out earlier - by the late 60s the tide was going out on bands appearing in films (eg Good Times). Maybe if it had nudity.

Great songs. Genuinely good soundtrack. Endearingly odd cast, including Annette Funicello (who has two scenes I think), Victor Mature (the Monkees are dandruff in his head), Frank Zappa, Sonnie Liston. I don't love it the way other people do but it's totally worth watching.

Movie review - "Uncharted" (2022) **

 I get what they were going for and I wanted them to get there - an old 80s style adventure, with twists and tongue and cheek action - but it's a quite sluggish trip. Tom Holland is okay at first but Mark Wahlberg seems bored then after a while Holland seems to be bored too, Sophia Ali lacks spark and Antonio Banderas is clearly just paying the rent.  Tati Gabrielle is good. No one has any chemistry.

Movie review - "Rosaline" (2022) **1/2

 Kaitlyn Dever is one of the best actors of her generation. I think her casting throws this movie off a little - because she's clearly so sensible she's never going to be really into Romeo. Indeed the film makes that clear - she likes the romance of it but wants a job, and then introduces a hunky alternative guy. I think the movie would've worked better with someone more clearly boy crazy who then gets liberated. 

Because after a super bright start the film has no stakes. Romeo isn't worth it, she kind of knows it. The film recovers in the last act because it becomes a race against time to save Romeo and Juliet's life so there are stakes again. And I love she calls Juliet on her terrible plan.

Movie review - "A Futile and Stupid Gesture" (2018) ****

 Lots of fun. Wittiest dialogue in a film since I don't know when. The self referential stuff doesn't always play well (eg comments about women, blacks) though sometimes to be fair it does (eg covering who ws important in the magazine). So much fun to see Joel McHale playing Chevy Chase. Cast is full of people like Emily Rossum and Natasha Lyone. I think star Will Forte means more in America.

One of Netflix's best ever original movies. It seems to have just been and gone and not lingered in the memory, when it should have.

Movie review - "Zombies 3" (2022) **

 I know why they went for aliens, I get it... it doesn't feel right somehow though. It felt as though the newcomers should be something more earth bound - like say mermaids or something. There's too much plot towards the end.

But a nice cast, and breezy tunes. There's even a hint at a lesbian relationship between a werewolf and an alien. Why is that girl on the screen the whole time?

Movie review - "Zombies 2" (2020) **1/2

 They bring in werewolves for this. Song and dance numbers are still great as are the stars. The love triangle hinted at with the leads might've been more effectively developed. Bright and cheerful. Good fun.

Script review - "Mr Horn" by William Goldman

 Goldman refers to this as a "bad experience" in his memoirs. It was filmed, as a TV movie. This script is better than that. I haven't done a comps analysis. This film is really good.

It's long - over 200 pages - and splits into two. I could see where it could be edited. You could get going with the story quicker. Sometimes Goldmans' prose is deceptive - you read it and go "wow this is a movie" but it doesn't necessarily play. But I think most of this would played.

It's in two parts. Part one is about the search for Geronimo, focusing on Horn's relationship with Al Sieber, and sub relationship with an officious army officer, plus the side bars of Crook and Miles. Part two is Horn as a bounty hunter/hired killer for the rich.

Lots of finicky changes in the TV movie. For instance, when Horn and Sieber first encounter Indians in the script it's at night and Horn senses Indians first before we see them. In the movie, we see a cut of the Indians and it's in the less scary day. It cuts a scene where Horn hears Geronimo's two lieutenants talking in Apache, unaware he can hear - this was a dumb cut. So too was reducing the stupidity of Lt Lawton. The suspense is reduced. Horn's achievement in the first battle is reduced. That sort of thing.

Movie review - "Deep Water" (2022) **1/2

 Adrian Lyne returns to the movies - not exactly the big screen, but with a tale in his wheelhouse: sexual jealousy. It's made with polish and some excellent actors - Affleck and Ana de Armas are genuine stars.

I think the story would've had more resonance if still set in the 1950s - I'm sure kinkiness still goes on, I just think the reality of why you'd be stuck in that marriage when it didn't please you would've "sold" more.

The discovery of a dead body doesn't happen until an hour into the film. De Armas takes probably two too many lovers (after a while it's like "alright already"). And I think the ending of the book was more believable.

Tracy Letts is great as an all too believable self important writer. Very good cast. Affleck and de Armas are terrific - Affleck has all this pain on his face, and you'd put up a lot for de Armas.

Movie review - "Zombies" (2018) ***

 Bright, charming musical with an engaging sense of the absurd (including direct to camera address), likeable cast, well covered serious subtext, and some really terrific song and dance numbers. What a talented cast! Meg Donnell was particularly impressive.

Movie review - "Blonde" (2022) **1/2

I loved how the film got people arguing about a movie again, as in it's the foyer of a film festival. The music is divine. The photography. Many of the images have stayed with me. It's long. Don't think it needed to be. It makes the same point again and again - she was mistreated by men. And her crazy mother.

People say it's made up. Well, a lot of it could've happened. Joe di Maggio did beat her. Zanuck could've raped her. She could've had a fling with JFK.  You didn't head the head job scene, I don't think. I know why it was there. I just didn't think it didn't need to be.

It was a slog at times, it was hard at times. I get why people don't like it. But it stimulated me.

Ana de Armas is terrific.

Movie review - "The Hating Game" (2022) **

 Some bright lines, a decent situation and Lucy Hale is winning as the short girl (her height is continually referred to in dialogue) with a work rival, played by some guy who isn't as good as her. Effective.

Movie review - "It's a Grand Life" (1953) **

 Comedy starring Frank Randle, an English northener who made a few comedies, mostly with a military setting. You can see his talent but the film is heavy. He's some old codger in the army and encounters a series of sketches. I only watched it because a support part is played by Diana Dors, who looks terrific and is as lively as ever as a woman in the woman's auxiliary. She has a romance with some sleazy older guy. There's these musical acts at the end.

Movie review - "Invisible Ghost" (1940) ** (re-watching)

 Saw this because it was Bela's 140th anniversary. It's still pretty solid, well directed. Decent twists with Bela thinking his wife is dead and she's not dead and Bela a rather tragic killer. Plenty of Bela. It's pretty full on how a guy is actually wrongly executed for the murders.

Movie review - "Tom Horn" (1980) **1/2

 The background to this movie is more interesting than the actual film - McQueen short of breath and discovering he was dying, firing several directors, wanting to make Old Times but being forced to do this, the fact there were dual Horn productions.

It feels patchy - start stop, voice over, uneven. Nice production design and cinematography. Moving in a lot of places. Some action sequences and Horn's hanging give an indication of what the film could've been.

I'm not sure the story is that interesting still. McQueen is really good.

Movie review - "The Brothers McMullen" (1995) ***1/2

 Probably still Ed Burns' best film. It has authenticity but more story being based around three brothers - the married one who has an affair (initiated by the woman very aggressively which feels fresh), one who is unsure of his new romance, another who has a Catholic crisis. Their dilemmas are the same as what Burns would explore later on but three brothers means more incident. There's also more conflict - people are tougher with each other.

Burns has long Gen X hair and some charming by-play with Maxine Bahns. Connie Britton is lovely as the perfect wife loved by her brother in laws more than her husband.

The Irish American background was fresh then - chats about JFK and JFK Jnr, and the role of the church.

Movie review - "Sidewalks of New York" (2001) ***

 Breezy, easy going Woody Allen riff which even has Heather Graham channelling Mia Farrow and David Krumholtz channels Woodu. His stalking of Rosario Dawson and Brittany Murphy maybe isn't as charming as we're meant to find it but he is a pleasing presence. Actually they all do it's a very well acted film, with plenty of star power - a young Brittany Murphy and Dawson, Burns, Stanley Tucci, Dennis Farina.

Graham and Burns were dating at the time (or once did) - she was his one before Christy Turlington. The film is let down a little by Burns' script - I think the characters are interesting but the chats a bit one note. Some of it is tired - gay jokes, Stanley Tucci worried about the size of his penis.

But there's lovely moments like Graham's friend asking Burns out a date for Graham and cuteness with Murphy. And I liked that Dawson just wasn't in to Burns and decided to keep his baby without telling him - that's dramatically interesting.

Movie review - "Ash Wednesday" (2002) **

 This movie starts off with some funky hand held visuals and I was like "oh Ed Burns has gotten Scorsese". And Burns later wrote that he wished he'd shot the whole film in that style - and he was right.

It is a change of pace for him, being about gangsters, specifically the Irish Mob - this is State of Grace territory. Elijah Wood shoots some gangsters after his brother Burns, then disappears. Three years later it turns out Wood might be coming home, with to get his girl (Rosario Dawson).

That's strong conflict. This would make a decent stage play, if rewritten.

As a film it suffers from Burns not being up to the strength of his idea. There's a lot of repetition - did you see him, yeah I saw him - as well as endless use of characters saying "f*ck". Burns has dishevelled hair in this one - he disliked his performance, but didn't not super different from his other performances.

Elijah Wood's peppy faced youngster has an interesting contrast  with Burns - but the piece might've been more effective with someone tougher, more attractive to Dawson. I didn't buy them being married and having a kid let alone Wood pining for her for so long. It's not the fault of the actors they just seemed too young - it would've been better had they seemed older.

Also they should've have Dawson and Burns be in love all the way through the film. They throw it in at the end.

Malachy McCourt is excellent as an old gangster. Oliver Platt is unusually cast as a hard man but he's always good and he registers. The music theme got wearying.

This movie had a lot of potential. I think Burns needed a co writer or something.

Movie review - "She's the One" (1996) ***

Edward Burns' second film is done with freshness and verve - he still had something to say, even if you can sense he's running out of stuff to say. But his dialogue is a lot sharper here, his characters are meaner.

It focuses on two brothers, Burns and Mike McGlone, one poor and the other rich, which is solid contrast. Burns marries Maxine Bahns impulsively setting off a chain reaction... Bahns isn't the best actor but she has a lovely presence and nice chemistry with Burns.

John Mahoney is excellent as the dad - he always shone in these Gen X films, like this, Reality Bites and Say Anything.

There's a lot of smoking. Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Aniston provide some star power as does Burns. Amanda Peet shines as Aniston's slightly trashy sister (the elder actors who play their parents are good too). Leslie Mann has a funny support role as Bahns' workmate.

The big thing is though that people were meaner. There was more conflict, more secrets. McGlone is cheating on his wife with Burns' ex - that's good drama. So is Bahns not being completely honest with Burns about her desire to go to Paris.

Some of it is tiresome - the plot about everyone wondering if McGlone is gay (because it doesn't pay off in an interesting way). But it's sweet, and tight, and polished.

Robert Redford executive produced.

Movie review - "Summer Days Summer Nights" (2021) **

 This Edward Burns film has a lot more visual confidence than other movies of his I've seen - long tracking shots, pans... maybe a new DOP, maybe more money. (It's not a big budgeted film but the soundtrack includes some well known songs from the early 80s). It's kind of Burns' American Graffiti being about several young people over one summer... it might've been better had it focused on a tighter time frame.

There's a lot of skinny/slender young actors walking around - no one eats too much food in this one. It is sometimes hard to tell the cast apart - maybe they're more familiar for US actors. I recognise Burns, of course, who plays (quite well) a dad, Anthony Ramos from In the Heights and Australia's own Caitlin Stasey.

There's also some bearded muso type who floats through the film and makes you go (me go anyway) "jeez, mate what's your frigging problem in life, f*ck off".

He's part of several subplots. Beardy falls for a blonde girl who is hung up on a guy. Another guy is hung up on his ex, who turns up having broken up from her husband who she is still hung up on. Another guy is  hung up on his ex and has a really hot "older" woman come on to him (she's 22) and encourages him to follow his dreams. I think that's it.

 It touches on the regular Burns themes - following your dreams as opposed to societal expectation, and The One That Got Away. It is pleasant.

Movie review - "The Groomsmen" (2006) **

 The budgets for Ed Burns movies got so low that this one looks like a lush production. It's full of familiar faces like John Leguizamo, Jay Mohr, Matthew Lilliard, Brittany Murphy. There's Irish American accent acting going on.

It's about people being angsty at 35. Burns is getting married to Murphy and his mates are being blokey about it. One is gay, another is infertile. Brittany Murphy has a thankless part as Burns' fiancee who hangs around pregnant. She whinges a bit that Burns doesn't show her any romance and eventually he does. That's her arc. Heather Burns is married to Donal Logue. She worries and whines and that's her arc.

Meatiest part is from Donal Logue as the infertile angry man who is rather relentlessly fat shamed.

Amiable, for the most part. Good actors.

Movie review - "Rifkin's Festival" (2020) **

 I'm a soft marker but I didn't mind it. Biggest problem, surprisingly, is Wallace Shawn. I normally love him but he's getting on now - his timing is a bit off, the candences slow. It's like Woody himself. Gina Gershon isn't quite right as his wife either. It is fun to see them in leads.

Shawn is a film critic at a festival. While Gershon flirts with a pretentious movie director Shawn chases after a doctor - you guessed it, a younger woman, played by Elena Anaya.  And you guessed it Gershon used t be a wild crazy bitch back in the day.

Anyaya is so far out of Shawn's league he never has a chance and there's no connection between the two apart from the fact he's from New York and she misses it. Maybe if she loved cinema and was older or he was younger...

Gershon can't wait to hook up with the movie director so it's not as though there are any stakes in the marriage. What's Shawn's dilemma - to be a critic or teach? Is that right?

The parodies of old films are fine eg The Seventh Seal. But this feels like another roughly formed first draft. Why not just have Swan play Woody with a younger wife and vicious paparazzi and some point...?

Nice scenery and photography.

Movie review - "Nice Guy Johnny" (2010) **

 I'm getting into the rhythms of these low budget Ed Burns films - not much happens, a few actors hanging out, easy going, big hearted. This is about a younger protagonist than usual for his movies - Matt Bush is turning 25, engaged to a hot girl (Anna Wood), has a job he loves but it doesn't pay well so he's going to work for his father in law's business.  That's a metaphor apparently for Burns wanting to stay independent instead of going studio -  a studio movie would probably be better written. But more hassle.

To sweeten the dream he runs into free spirit Kerry Bishe, who is slender and beautiful like Bush's fiancee. I guess that's Burns' type eg Maxine Bahn, Christy Turlington. 

Burns appears as Bush's scallyway uncle. There's an erratic English actor in this one as there was in Purple Violets - I don't know why.

Amiable. Likeable. Bush has a high pitched voice. Not quite as good as the girls. His moral dilemma isn't much - poverty isn't really dramatised and Bishe is there and waiting to help him be true. Nice shots of the Hamptons.

Movie review - "Purple Violets" (2007) **

 Ed Burns likes to make movies where characters wonder about "the one who got away". It's central to She's The One, No Looking Back and this one, where Selma Blair wonders about her ex, Patrick Wilson, while her bestie, Debra Messing, has feelings for her ex, Edward Burns.

There's also a lot of talk about artistic integrity and being true, and not selling out.

It's a slow amble. People hang out in kitchens, at diners, and chat. Lots of pouring glasses of wine, With the Irish American background downplayed Burns' voice feels less sure.

I didn't mind it. It passed over me amiably. I think I have nostalgia for that plotless 90s movie making.

Movie review - "Clerks III" (2022) ** (warning: spoilers)

Kevin Smith is at his best when writing about personal experience, and as he's avoided that in his films the quality of his work has declined. There's plenty of material to mine: the heart attack, turning vegan, trying to stay relevant as he gets old, having a daughter grow up, discovering the truth of allegations about Harvey Weinstein.

The only one he goes for here is the heart attack. I think Smith came up with the concept then was trapped by it - Randall has a heart attack and decides to make a film.  I get that's a sexy concept. 

But it's one that quickly runs into problems. I don't think Smith knows how Randall and Dante would talk these days - he knew how they did talk but not now. He knew how to write about making a cheap film them but not now. It doesn't make sense a forty something man would make a movie about working in a store now... an autobiographical film yes. But the old guys play their roles.

He would've been better off making a film about Walt Flanagan and co now - or his life now. Or a pure nostalgia piece. Maybe he didn't want to go there.

Fun to see cameos though cannot Ralph Garman impersonate anyone other than Arnie and Al Pacino? The Smith stock company is there - wife, daughter, Ben Affleck, Justin Long, Freddy Prinze and Sarah Michelle Gellar, Supergirl.

Some glimpses of a more interesting movie - like when Dante and Veronica hook up. That could've been a film. It has some emotion when Dante dies.

But like Jersey Girl this is outside Smith's comfort zone, despite it being Clerks. His comedy riffs don't work the same way. It's unsure of itself. It repeats the same arc as Clerks 2 with Randall telling Dante what Dante means to him. (Why not give Randall a romance, by the way?)

I loved Kevin Smith movies but they're just not working. If he's not willing to really put it on the line I'm not sure he should be doing it.

Movie review - "End of Days" (1999) **1/2

 Dumb. Loud. Arnie has too much dialogue.  Rips off so many films - The Terminator, Rosemary's Baby, Braveheart. Unpleasant story basically about stopping Gabriel Byrne raping Robin Tunney.

Tunney is good in these wide eyed innocent roles. Byrne is good in these evil devil roles. Rod Steiger eats scenery. Miram Margoyles adds camp value. High death toll. Peter Hyams photography and editing - quick cuts, etc. Random sexy scene with Byrne sleeping with Udo Kier's wife and daughter. 

Still there's always something happening and plenty of action. Logical finale.

Movie review - "Dead for a Dollar" (2022) **1/2

 Good to see Walter Hill back in the saddle. This is a tight, unpretentious riff on The Professionals with Chris Waltz a bounty hunter hired to retrieve the wife, Rachel Brosnahan, of a wealthy man who has run off with a black man to south of the border. He's accompanied by another black man, a Buffalo soldier.

This gets off to a strong start but becomes bogged down in the middle has they hang around a town. But picks  up towards the end with plenty of gun play - including some by Brosnahan who looks as though she's having fun. So too do Willem Dafoe as a horse thief and Benjamin Bratt as a Mexican baddy.

I missed Ry Cooder and this being shot on film but it's a decent tale.

Movie review - "Stay Tuned" (1992) **

 High concept 90s comedy - TV viewers get sucked into a television - with presale TV stars (John Ritter and Pam Dawber). Odd choice for Peter Hyams but presumably he wanted a change of pace. I guess there are many nods to old Hollywood (swasbucklers, gangster films) so that's in his wheelhouse.

There's a double conceit here - the lead couple are dragged into a TV but not regular TV rather spoof of current TV. I wonder if it wouldn't have been more effective just being sucked into normal TV.

Some clever moments. It's well plotted. But also annoying. Has 90s curiou factor with its jokes about Northern Exposure, Thirtysomething and the Salt n Pepa cameo with Ritter skirting with blackface.

The cast try. Eugene Levy is fun. Jeffrey Jones reminds us of another bloated sfx comedy Howard the Duck.

Movie review - "Odongo" (1956) **

 A Warwick adventure set in Africa, like Safari, but this is not typical of their normal output. For one it's got two American stars, not one, and has no British lead. For another it's not action/adventure it's a dull romance between big game hunter MacDonald Carey and doctor Rhonda Fleming. Fleming is at least gorgeous, too hot for Carey. There's some tired conflict between them over killing vs keeping animals alive. Carey's character is unpleasant, Fleming swims in a lagoon, plus  cute kid called Odongo.

The leads have no chemistry. It's not interesting. They throw in a black villain to capture Odongo and throw him off a cliff. There's an annoying white family with a kid who befriends Odongo - it reminded me of the Desmond Tester-Sabu relationship in The Drum. But the kid isn't Sabu.

John Gilling directed.

Book review - "Somehwere Out There: My Animated Life" by Don Bluth

 Bluth's had an interesting career, definitely carved out his own niche as the animation guy who wasn't Disney. He was Disney, and was being fast tracked to take over, but got jack and set up his own shop making The Secret of Nimh. He cough and spluttered along afterwards, never seemed to really crack it but also managed to make eleven films, including An American Tail, Land Before Time and Anastasia.

Bluth wanted to be an animator from an early age but still took a lot of detours - he got a job at Disney then quit it to be a Mormon missionary in Argentina (he's still a Mormon), he went back to Disney later, set up his own shop later.

Bluth refers to some young romances but never got married and never talks of girlfriends. This is odd for such a memoir.

The book is at its best discussing the films - at least that's what I'm most interested in. The dealings of Disney in the 70s, the emergence of the CalTech kids such as Brad Bird, John Lassiter and  Tim Burton (a powerhouse of talent) who Bluth says didn't like him (I'd like to know more about this), moving out on his own, going into video games, the comfort and challenges of Spielberg, moving to Ireland, difficulties with writers, eventually going bust, being rescued by Fox then going bust again.

Where does Bluth stand in cinema? He had a the soul of an artist. Made a lot of films people are fond of. Was independent in animation when that was really brave (I guess it's brave now). Maybe he didn't have the talent to match his dreams but he had the dreams and enough talent to go his own way. As he himself admits his greatest legacy is probably providing Disney with some competition and independent operators such as Pixar with someone to emulate.

Movie review - "Beyond Reasonable Doubt" (1956) *** (warning: spoilers)

 I saw this after the Peter Hyams remake. It's still a little too silly but is better in part because it's simpler. In the remake Jesse Metcalfe wanted to bust Michael Douglas for faking evidence by faking evidence... here Dana Andrews is doing it to show how the death penalty can cause the wrong people to be convicted (the same thing as The Life and Death of David Gale). It's a simpler motivation.

I also believed the final twist more, even though Lang disliked it. Here it feels more organic that Andrews wanted to take out a former lover - he used the opportunity.

Joan Fontaine is adrift in a hopeless role. Dana Andrews does his solid Andrews thing. There's some colourful burlesque girls in support and you can imagine Lang having a high old lechy time around them.

Definitely one of the better 1950s RKO movies. Not a masterpiece but interesting.

Movie review - "Hanover Street" (1979) **

 Look I get what they were going for - old style war time sob story - but I don't think Peter Hyams studied them enough. Or was forced to compromise.

It's not his fault Harrison Ford and Lesley Ann Down have no charisma, or Down can't emote despite her beauty. I know he originally cast Kris Kristofferson and Genevieve Bujold. Harrison Ford isn't bad.

It is his fault that he had them meet and get it on with her married to a man who is not only played by dashing Chris Plummer, but he's shown to be kind and caring and a lovely father (to Patsy Kensit who shines in a nice little scene). He's also got a sexy job - training spies. I mean, that's not dull.

It's also his fault they don't give Down anything sympathetic - some vague nursing scenes. She's not even that involved a mother.

You got why Celia Johnson cheated in Brief Encounter. She was dull, had a dull husband, never fell in love before, found this guy and bang.

You don't get Down and Ford here. She's hot and glamorous and so's her husband. So she just wants to root Ford for a wartime thing. Which is fine, but that's not what the movie should be.

It's Hyam's' fault they pull focus to Ford and make the last third an action film - not a bad one either, with Nazi undercover scenes reminiscent of Ford and Sean Connery in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Ford again as someone who can't speak English). And it's heart this is really an action /spy movie - there's spy training sequences with Plummer, talk of a spy. It even rips off The Great Escape motorcycle chase.

They get away with Plummer happening to go on a mission with Ford - not so much with convenient flak whiping out everyone on the plane except for them.

The cast includes reliables like Alec McCowen, John Ratzenberger, Shane Rimmer and Richard Masure. There's  fat person in it - Hyams films often had them. Ford's co pilot is Michael Sacks from Slaughterhouse Five. Lush John Barry score.

Movie review - "Enemies Closer" (2013) **1/2

 Not bad little action film which suffers from the casting of Tom Everett Scott as an ex-seal naval vet - Scott's a good actor he just gives off suburban dad vibes. But this is off set by Jean Claude Van Damme having wonderful fun with curly air and veganism as the villain.

Orlando Jones is solid as a guy with a vendetta against Scott, though both actors are forced to monologue too much. Plenty of cheese, a body count that feels unnecessarily high - Sudden Death had this too - nighttime photography, quick pace, some twists, the nighttime setting is good, decent ish action. But the real novelty is Van Damme.

Movie review - "Beyond Reasonable Doubt" (2009) **

 Random film to remake but I guess it has a high concept - a journalist tries to frame a crooked DA by deliberately framing himself for murder then plans on exposing himself as being framed. But didn't he frame himself?

Oh anyway look it's high concept. Michael Douglas has quite a small role as the crooked DA. Jess Metcalf has a decent speaking voice and isn't bad, but he's not a star, nor is Amber Tamblyn and the film needed one.

There's lots of plot - well, detail in the plot, plenty of details, but I didn't buy it. I didn't buy a lot of it - Metcalf as a journo, his determination, or Douglas being evil, or Tamblyn's motives. Maybe the film should've been told from her point of view.

It's got marks of Hyams films: logic flaws, zingers, crisp editing, sharp whispering noises, confused character motivations, sharp pace, easy to watch, car chases, good black people who don't have a big part, fat actors.

Movie review - "Time Cop" (1994) **1/2

 I was hoping this would be better than it was but there are some decent moments. It's nicely shot, has a few twists and has a kind of logic. I got here and there. The action was a little underwhelming. Jean Claude Van Damme is relaxed and confident. Mia Sara is beautiful, not a great actor. Ron Silver can act very well. 

The film lacked something. I can't figure what it is. More holistic approach or something. I don't know. That's not very useful.

Book review - "Rascals in Paradise" by James Michener & Arthur Day (1957)

 "Rascals" is generous considering a lot of these people are rapists, slavers and murderers. A lot of topics that I'm surprised haven't been filmed. The Globe Mutineers were very violent. The French nobleman who sent Europeans out to a dud country. There's a successful Chinese pirate, good old Bligh, a lady explorer, Bully Hayes who is a rascal but also a slavery and child rapist. Leeteg is a painter. Louis Becke an Aussie writer I'd never heard of! Walter Gibson is a Yank who got involved in Hawaiian politics. William Mariner is perhaps the most intersting story - teenager who survived a massacre and was befriended by the King of Tonga, survived and got home to become an accountant.

Book review - "Quartered Safe Out Here" by George MacDonald Fraser

 I've read this book account. A mostly superb account of Fraser's brief time in the line in Burma during World War Two. Great vivid sketches of the army, battle, Slim Gurkhas, Calcutta, the 1945 election. Interspersed the grumpy rants. This one had an epilogue about anniversary of VJ Day and isn't that interesting - more grumpiness about the state of Britain. Still when this is on song it's wonderful.

Movie review - "Wild Card" (2015) ** (re-watching)

 Better cast. Jason Statham isn't as good an actor as Burt Reynolds but he's fine. It was shot in New Orleans, apparently - that can't help. Shoots the original script. Still lacks flavour. Christmas decorations are in the script but it seems to lack the point of setting it at Christmas. Excellent support cast. Cyrus plot doesn't work.

Book review - "The industry : life in the Hollywood fast lane" by Saul David (1981)

 David isn't that famous a figure but had an interesting career, producing a series of hits at Fox in the late 60s, and this is an entertaining book. It wobbles a little all over the place but has terrific accounts of the making of movies like Von Ryan's Express, Skullduggery, The Black Bird - ego trips from Sinatra and George Segal (!), MGM in the early 70s, Lew Wasserman, the Zanucks. I thought there's be more on the Flint films.